His Own Turf

Franklin Farmer Cultivates Grass Business

August 24, 1997|By KATHY VAN MULLEKOM Daily Press

FRANKLIN — It's a 95-degree August day and Mark Phillips longs for cooler times, the kind of weather that deepens the green in fescue turf.

He's not worrying about the lawn browning up at his home. He's got bigger concerns: some 120 acres of fescue turf he grows and harvests as ready-to-install sod for businesses, homeowners and landscapers.

His six-year-old business, Franklin Turfgrass, leases what used to be a large cattle farm adjacent to the Blackwater River in Franklin and some smaller acreage near the Nottoway River. The soil is a rich-looking brown and finely textured, the kind that will sift like sand through your fingers.

Cultivating fescue for sod installation isn't a complicated business, but you must maintain a vigil so disease or drought doesn't destroy the crop. Brown patch, a fungus that thrives on heat, humidity and moisture, is a major threat to fescue in the summer. When Mark recently saw the fungus cropping up in his turf after 12 inches of rain fell in 10 days, he quickly brought it under control by spraying a turf-type fungicide. Then there are the usual broadleaf weeds to contend with each spring and fall.

The turfgrass-to-sod process is similar to what homeowners should do in their own lawns. Mark, a 1981 Virginia Tech graduate, and his six full-time workers spend extra time and effort preparing the massive seed beds. They plow the soil, disc it twice and then go over it twice again with a box blade to level the soil.

``You want a fine texture and no lumps in the soil,'' says Mark.

Each fall, Mark's crew sows about 22,000 pounds of fescue seed. He'll blend two or three fescues together so the resulting turf benefits from the strong characteristics in each brand of seed.

``If a characteristic is lacking in one fescue, then another fescue will make it up,'' says Mark.

He's learned by trial and error that fall is the only time to plant fescue in this area, he says.

``Tidewater is a hostile environment for seeding in the spring or summer. But there are nicer fescues that are more-drought tolerant and still look good in the dormant period.''

For harvesting purposes, the crew then puts down a green plastic mesh. The loosely woven mesh holds the turf together and insures that only a half-inch of topsoil is removed when the fescue is harvested. To keep the topsoil healthy and in good supply, he rotates crops, growing and tilling under soil-improving crops such as soybeans.

Each fall, the turf gets three applications of a 20-10-10 fertilizer; two more light fertilizations are done in March and April. And he routinely does soil tests from 10 samples taken over the acreage to make sure the turf is getting enough potassium and phosphorus for good root growth and that the pH, or acidity level, falls between a healthy 6.0 to 6.5.

Until harvest time eight months later, the turf needs steady water from Mother Nature or from the overhead, pivoting irrigation systems that pump water from the nearby rivers. And the grass must be mowed about every two weeks.

Harvest time sets the $44,000 sod cutter in motion. It's actually a tractor outfitted with two blades and a small conveyor belt. A horizontal blade goes just under the turf, cutting swaths 16 inches wide, while a vertical blade slices the grass into 81-inch lengths. The sod cutter even neatly rolls up each 16-by-81-inch section - enough to sod one square yard - and sends it up the conveyor belt to a cart attached to the tractor.

``It's very labor intensive,'' says Mark of the business.

``But I'm an outdoor person. And there's nothing more rewarding to drive up and see a bare lawn, then drive away and see it all sodded with grass.''

TURF TIPS

Some general fescue lawn-care tips from Mark Phillips:

* Have a soil test done to determine your soil's pH, or acidity level, and what the soil needs in the way of lime, potassium and phosphorus.

* Prepare your seed bed so it's level with no lumps and has finely textured soil. Till in organic matter if needed.

* Sow fescue seed in the fall. Keep the seed moist but not overly wet until it germinates.

* Fertilize three times in the fall.

* Provide your lawn with an inch of water per week, done in a slow, single watering so the water soaks in deeply. Water during the morning to prevent fungus.

* Control broadleaf weeds each spring and fall. Watch for and control brown patch fungus in the summer.